Lost at Sea

We've had so many Christmases and we already had more toys than we knew what to do with, so we're swimming in a sea of toys.

We were so blessed by the people we spent time with during Christmas and we received some great gifts too! Some of the gifts we opened were:

White Christmas morning!

Globe

Camera

Musical Noah's Ark Piano

Tricycle

Walking toy

books

A very special ring from Aunt Grace (not technically a Christmas present)

Several cookbooks

and 2 disney princess tea sets!

Rachel also REALLY enjoyed playing with Uncle Robby and Aunt Deidra's doggies! It was very hard to get her to pay attention to other things besides the doggies, including going to sleep.

Left Behind

On Christmas Day I lost my dear Aunt Grace who fought a losing battle with cancer. She left behind a loving husband and 12 year old son. There's no doubt that they are grieving and may have a tough time coping in the next several months and I can't imagine what Christmas will be like next year for them, but we'll definitely be praying for them in the coming days. Thankfully she was a believer and is in heaven with my brother, enjoying the presence of God. We are thankful for the lessons she taught us and for sharing her life with us. We were blessed by her.

After David died, Grace's son (then 6 yrs old) said that David was getting to go to church with Jesus that early Sunday morning. It put a smile on our sad faces that day. A similar thing was said of Grace while we were there, saying she got to celebrate Jesus' birthday with Him instead of here on earth.

All my life my mom has called me Grace by mistake over and over again. It's just fitting that while we were in town for her memorial service, mom called me Grace. I turned around and said, "I'm not Grace." Most of me hopes that she'll keep calling me Grace so that in that moment I will be able to remember her life and smile.

Little Tid Bits

There are just a few things that the girls are doing that are new and sometimes exciting:

Rachel has said lots of words but for those words with 2 or more syllables she only used the first one. This was fairly difficult to try to figure out what she was saying. Luckily in the past few days she has started to use 2 syllables for the words that have at least 2 syllables. Toby now actually sounds like Toby.

Rachel's new favorite food is an orange. I've bought the small oranges called cuties recently, so she asks for them often.

Rebekah is crawling everywhere and pulls up on anything she can find, even if it's just Rachel's stool. So far, she is the shorty of the family coming in somewhere between the 50th and 75th percentile for height. She has 7 teeth and had 3 new teeth within 9 days (I think). She learned to wave at people, although she waves mostly at things she likes (i.e. the Christmas tree). She's even able to wave with both hands now.

In the last week Rebekah has eaten several new things. I gave her some of my orange the other day. She's also eaten a few crackers on her own. I also bought the Gerber veggie puffs to see if we could have a snack for her to eat on her own. I probably won't buy them again, but it was a good food to begin experimenting what she can eat by herself.

We are getting ready for Christmas and Rachel is excited. She likes her ornament and each ornament belongs to someone. We are hoping for a good Christmas with our families, though we are unsure of what it will bring. Please pray for my aunt who is battling cancer and it seems to be spreading and she was diagnosed with pneumonia on Thursday.

Late night phone calls

...or should I say early morning phone calls. The past 2 mornings and Wednesday afternoon, I have been receiving a phone call for a job offer for some stranger. The automated voice says they are calling to offer a job for Tari (long i) Laymoan? Knowing that this isn't my name I push 2 to have them not call me again today. Well, 5 AM Thursday, we get a call from the same number and a weird recording on the voicemail. They call at 6 AM again and I have my phone this time, so I push 2 to not call again.

Friday morning 5 AM....another call! I almost make it to the phone this time and after I listen to the voicemail, I begin to wonder...

Are these calls really for me and could it be the Aesop system for substitutes? By 6AM we figure out that, yes, it's really MY name they are saying. Our only conundrum is that I don't have knowledge of what my password is to prevent the 5 AM phone calls. After a couple phone calls, I found out that I'm supposed to have this said information in an email I was expecting but never received. This information is apparently floating out in cyber space somewhere! Let's just hope that I can get this straightened out so I don't have to be awakened at 5 AM every morning. Some of us need our sleep!

For those of you who don't know, I have been going through orientation and waiting to become a substitute nurse for the school district Jeff works for. Apparently, I've succeeded and am in their substitute system, but boy would I like to stop getting strange phone calls early in the morning.

Long fall

Happy Thanksgiving all. I had grand plans to get onto facebook and our blog to write about our interesting experience here in East Texas. We spend Thanksgiving at my (Teri) grandmother's house with my Dad's family. I was getting ready to take Rebekah out of her high chair after eating dinner and I took the tray off. As I turned around to set it out of the way Rebekah fell out of the high chair to the floor!

I must interject that she was buckled into the high chair when I left her. She also fell onto carpeted flooring and somehow managed to fall between the corner of the bench and the corner of the table. As I picked her up I realized that yes she was buckled in, but the buckle wasn't attached to the chair. When I put her into the chair there was nothing that would alert me to the fact that the buckle wasn't attached. She screamed for at least 15 minutes and we tried to put an ice pack on her face. We soon discovered that her poor nose was rather swollen.

We made the decision to take her to the ER. After we started driving she was quiet most of the way to the hospital. Whene we got to the hospital, we realized that the high chair buckle was still attached to her. Thankfully, the ER has an express care for lower level traumas and we are hoping the bill we receive will be smaller than that of a regular ER visit. The conclusion of the visit was that she just has a bruise on her nose. We stopped by the drug store on the way home, giving her Tylenol as we drove and were home by 7:30.

I'm not sure if I want to post any pictures of her bruised nose, but here's one of her and one of the family.

Lots of Toys and Goodies

As "The Christmas song" says:

"Tiny tots with their eyes all a glow

Will find it hard to sleep tonight

They know that Santa's on his way

He's loaded lots of toys and goodies on his sleigh

And every mother's child is gonna spy

To see if reindeer really know how to fly"

Well, our kids won't be thinking about that, but Jeff and I have been talking about having stockings for our children. Over the last couple of Christmases we've Googled the origins of stockings and the purpose of them in today's world. We don't have anything set in stone in regards to the stocking idea, but we would like to instill the desire to give to others during the Christmas season.

For those of you who don't know, this is some of the information we found when looking up the origins of stockings.

According to legend, a kindly nobleman grew despondent over the death of
his beloved wife and foolishly squandered his fortune. This left his three young
daughters without dowries and thus facing a life of spinsterhood.

The generous St. Nicholas, hearing of the girls' plight, set forth to help.
Wishing to remain anonymous, he rode his white horse by the nobleman's house and
threw three small pouches of gold coins down the chimney where they were
fortuitously captured by the stockings the young women had hung by the fireplace
to dry.

We also ventured on Saturday to a sale at JC Penney where we acquired some rather exciting finds. Having numerous coupons and gift cards, we set out to find a few things for the girls and/or others for Christmas. We ended up buying 5 things, unfortunately all for us. I previously bought Rachel some brown shoes for $14 that I wanted to take back to get a pair that matches her clothes better. We also bought Rebekah a special blanket to give her for Christmas and found this one for the same price, but much cheaper with all our coupons & gift cards. I have also been looking for a Baby's 1st Christmas ornament and outfits for the girls to wear on Christmas.

Receipt 1:

Rachel's yearly ornament = FREE
Brown shoes for Rachel = FREE

Receipt 2:
Rebekah's 1st Christmas ornament
Onesie for R2 Christmas morning
Blanket for Rebekah's Christmas
Total: $5.28

I realize it is bragging, but really, the original price of our items totalled almost $70! Our savings, not including the taxes we could have paid , was over 90%. I love shopping for bargains!

Happy Shopping!

Loose Britches

Yesterday I was getting Rebekah up from one of her naps and all of a sudden, Rachel appears in the doorway with her pants around her ankles. It got me thinking about her clothes. Most of the clothes in our house come from people giving us things or from us buying clothes at a consignment sale/shop. In my head Rachel has tons of clothes. She probably has at least 15 pairs of pants (sweats, jeans, knit, corduroy).

What I find interesting is that I'm quite picky about the jeans that I wear. Of Rachel's 15 pairs of pants, about 5 of them are jeans, and to be honest, none of them fit her well. At least 2 of them look like boys pants and are huge and baggy. Another is a size 3T, so they're a little big in the waist and a little too long, but come March, they'll fit great. It must be nice to not worry about the clothes you wear. She doesn't have to pick them out, wash them, buy them, try them on, etc.

Funnily enough, I discovered that she unsnapped and unzipped her pants in order to pull them down. Well, I guess we're on to a new phase in parenting...how to keep your child's clothes on.

Just a little update on Rebekah....She CRAWLING!! She's getting a little faster each day. She's keeping me on my toes to keep things she shouldn't have off the floor. Today Rachel and I were putting new books on the shelf in Bekah's room, and since Rebekah wanted the books, I put her in her crib. A couple minutes later I turn around and she's standing up in her crib! Ahh! After Rachel and I finished with the books, I took Rebekah out of her crib so that I could lower the mattress. Her mattress is now on the lowest possible level. Hopefully she won't learn to climb out of the crib. She does seem to be more adventurous than Rachel, so I may be in for a wild ride! Hang on to your seatbelts.

Tee Tee in the Potty

Okay, so we've tried a few times to get Rachel to use the real potty and her new potty that's her size and she loves to sit on it. The only problem is that she's never gone in it. One time she did sit on it for a long time, and since she was sitting patiently I decided to use the restroom. Right after I sat down, she got up to come find me and peed on the floor right in front of me! So close!

Since she just turned 2 a month ago, we haven't been pushing too much, but tonight she said something that made us indicate she needed to go. She sat on the potty for a while, and then we read a book, and then she asked me to go potty. In order to prevent the first accident, I put her in view of me. (Side note: It's hard to deal with not going to the restroom by yourself when you have kids, but you do what you've got to do) After I went to the bathroom and was going to wash my hand, she said "more, more," and not knowing what she was talking about, I looked in her potty, and found yellow at the bottom of the potty! I was very excited, and she even clapped for herself.

The only problem is that Jeff and I haven't discussed what potty training looks like for us, whether we do the "potty dance", or if we give her candy rewards or what. If anyone has suggestions let us know.

Rachel sitting on the potty (not today)

Lovely to meet you

Nearly two weeks ago, Jeff's brother and his family moved back to the states from New Zealand. Yes, we said New Zealand. They spent almost 3 years there and met some wonderful friends and made lots of memories. Back in June they had their first child, a son, Tobias Prescott Lehmann. We, and they, call him Toby, for short, or as Rachel says "Toe". We were able to meet them on my birthday and had a fun late afternoon chatting and meeting our nephew. We all are very glad to have them all here.

Rachel really likes "Toe" and says "where's Toe" every time we walk in the door. Of course when we arrive he tends to be sleeping, so she has to wait, but she will likely keep asking about Toby.

We did have them over for dinner and some conversation one night, which we rather enjoyed, and it kind of turned into a mini photo shoot.

The advantage of having a really great photographer in the family, is that a normal romp in the leaves out front turns into a photo shoot. Of course you could pay a photographer to do this, but we hope to avoid the sitting fee. Uncle Chad even got Rachel to SMILE for the camera. He's either a camera genius (which he is) or maybe he's just the crazy uncle (which is also is and I mean that in a loving manner).

It's been a fun 2 weeks and we can't wait to spend time with them over the holidays. Time is flying by and we look forward to seeing some of you over the holidays. Well, those lovely girls of mine are calling me so I must go. Enjoy the pictures.

Late Night & Rachel's Birthday

Well, the night before Rachel's birthday I was up pretty late decorating Rachel's cupcake cake. We had care group on Saturday and I wasn't able to get started on it as early as I had hoped.

Either way, I made it to bed, and church the next morning, and the party was fun. I feel a little out of my league, because I've never done a birthday party for kids. What kind of games can you play with 2 year olds. Thanks to Rachel's grandparents though, we had stuff for the kids to make/decorate cards.

Rachel got some really cool big toy items, like a play house, a kitchen, and the all important wagon. We also got puzzles, flash cards, clothes, and other toys.

Lovely Lady~!

By: Jeff

So Teri always does the posts on our blog, but I thought I would write at least one. Right now Teri is at church helping with ESL and that just got me thinking about how many things Teri does and how great she is. :) Yes, I am biased. :) Not only does she take care of both of our children that are 2 and about 8mo old, she also leads a ladies Bible study on Tuesday mornings, Helps with the Jr. High at our church, Helps with our home team that meats every 1st and 3rd Saturday, takes meals to people who have had babies, eats lunch with other ladies that are going through the same time of life as she does, cooks Great food for us at home, takes care of other household things, and it makes me tired just typing all of it. Oh, did I mention Yoga, and following me around to various school and soccer activities. She truly is amazing. I don't think I would last much more than a week if that at home with both of the girls trying to get to the grocery store, oh there's another one, and maybe getting a shower once and a while. Somehow she manages to get all of this done and still manage to spend some time with me. This Friday is her Birthday and so I thought she deserved this and so much more, so I wanted to share this small glimpse of her with you. Feel free to wish her a Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday Dear~! I Love You~! :)

Lack of Energy

Well, these days we seem to stay busy as always, but for some reason I feel tired a lot. I'd like to say my iron is low or I'm not getting enough sleep, but I don't know any of it is true. It doesn't help that household chores aren't my favorite. Recently it seems that lots of our friends and family members are announcing pregnancies. While we understand the need for sanity and a strong relationship with each other before we have a third child, my body can't help but feel the desire to be pregnant.

DISCLAIMER: We are NOT pregnant, and have NO intentions of trying to get pregnant.

The girls are getting so big! Rachel will be 2 in 12 days!!! It's so sad to think of how she's already 2! It might be even stranger when Rebekah turns 1, but I still have a few months before I have to think about that. I'm very excited about Rachel's butterfly birthday party that we'll have on her birthday. Although, I think I've resolved that we'll always have family birthday parties.

Well, we're almost a week into October, and it seems we're flying through the month despite the large number of activities and birthdays. Jeff's birthday was a low key affair, but we went out to eat for his birthday and his parents came over the day after to have steaks we cooked on the grill. We had fun. Next up is the state fair tomorrow, if the rain will manage to hold off long enough for us to enjoy the sites. Hang on to your hats, it's going to be a wild one.

Loco in La Cabeza

Well, apparently I'm a pretty busy woman as some of you noticed in Lots to Do, but I'm gearing up for a very big weekend as the Junior High as part of the rest of the church serves and prepares for our HUGE outreach event called Chili Con Carnival. This is the 4th time we've held this event and we're expecting it to be bigger than it was 2 years ago. The last time it took place there were at least 1200 people and we're expecting approximately 1500 this year! I know it seems crazy, but it's the biggest way our church has chosen to say thank you to the community for being so gracious to us over the years.

I'm in charge of the Junior High's Serve and Play Day (SPD) and am thrilled about getting 6th-8th graders ecxited to serve others. Some of the things I have planned I hope they will remember. Jeff tells me to not get my hopes too high, because more than likely I'll remember the day more than they will because of all the work I've put into it. I did discover that one of the games I want to play will take more planning and extra work up at church on Friday in order to be ready by Saturday morning. I guess we'll be driving to Plano almost every day this week!

The weather has been nice and cool, though it rained almost every day for more than a week and it made most of us a little stir crazy and needed to do something to get the energy out. I've had today to do some of my chores and enjoy a day without the girls, but I'll be picking them up soon. I hope they've had fun because it hardly feels like I've had any time to get things done.

Can you believe Rachel will be 2 in 27 days? The time has flown by and we look forward to having many more years with her. She's got big shoes (and socks) to fill! :)

Licking your face

Isn't that what dogs do when they are happy to see you and to show that they love you?

Jeff and I have talked occasionally about getting a dog over the past few years. I came really close to getting him a dog for his birthday the year we were married, but before I did it, I asked him what he would think if someone got him a dog and he went on and on about how he'd like to pick out his own dog. Needless to say, I had to start over on ideas of what to get him.

We got pregnant not long after we were married and were living in an apartment, so we've been put off getting a dog. We have had 2 children since we've been married, so life has been a little too busy to get a dog, but I'm hoping to get one sometime soon. We are making some changes to our budget and I'm hoping to convince Jeff that he really wants a dog, so that we can get one soon! I'm sure the answer is still NO, but I look forward to the day that I get to come home to a dog/puppy who's happy to see me! :)

ISN'T HE CUTE???

Loads of Laundry

Do you know how when laundry day comes there's this looming feeling that things are about to get really messy and take over your house? Well, if you do laundry like I do, you understand. I'm not really feeling like laundry is a daunting task, even though I dislike doing it each week.

I will say, that I'm glad I managed to do some laundry (some is still washing), folded it, did most of the dishes, made dinner, fed my children, exercised (it was only walking, but at least we got out in this rainy weather), gave the girls a bath, and managed to get in a LITTLE me time.

What I'm really talking about are all the items on my "To Do" list. I've been put in charge of a Junior High activity, that I didn't realize I was in charge of until Saturday night when I couldn't sleep. Instead of organizing just part of said activity, I'm also in charge of the other 2/3 of it. By the way, I am a little excited about one of the games I have started planning!

Just to give you an idea of what's on our schedule for the next little while, the following are on the list:

(for those of you that work and do these sorts of things on a daily basis I praise you, but I'm not one to function well on a busy schedule, and also feel as if time is flying by and will be in need of some oxygen sometime in the near future)

Every Tues: Bible Study (I lead the group)
Every Wed: JRH
Sat: Work day at church, small group
Sun: Teach 3-4 yr olds w/ JRH girls, leader's mtg, parent meeting
Sat: JRH activity, prep work for church carnival
Sun: church, carnival prep, more carnival prep, organize JRH kids during said carnival, clean up carnival (do you get the picture?)
Mon: Jeff open house (no Dad all day), father-in-law's birthday (Happy Birthday by the way)
Thurs: Jeff Birthday
October: several birthday's occur
Rachel's 2nd birthday in about 1 month!
Sat: more church stuff, small group
Sun: more church stuff
Next wknd: men's retreat
Next wknd: small group
Next weekend: JRH activity
Next weekend: The return of the long lost (sort of) brother and sister-in-law and MY NEPHEW!

If any of our devoted readers would like to come hang out with us, Friday night is probably the most available day of the week, and since we're football fans, you may need to check to see if we'll be at the Rockwall football game.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel really busy, and that we are heavily involved in what's going on at the church, which is causing some anxiety. I must find a way to care for my home, children, husband, and fulfill all of my responsibilities. I'm not sure what I'm going to do if/when I actually get to start working 1 or 2 days a week. I guess we're leading a busy life and we only have 2 toddlers. I can't imagine what life will be like when they start doing school activites!

Late Afternoon Ritual

In the afternoon, both of the girls tend to wake up at the same time, so I go get Rebekah out of her bed and take her into Rachel's room. As soon as I open the door, Rebekah has a huge smile on her face and Rachel is asking me to put her down on her bed so they can play. I didn't think to take pictures in the process, but I got a few of them being happy, even if they are grumpy the rest of the day.

Oh, and by the way, for those 1st born children out there...Rachel doesn't need to be taught anything. She frequently tells Rebekah "no" when she's playing with something or doing something she shouldn't be doing. Who knew you'd have to be teaching a girl under the age of 2 that it's mommy's job to tell the children "no"?

On another note...

Rebekah reached her 1/2 birthday on Labor Day (isn't that convenient) while we were picking the girls up from my parents house. We are very excited to have reached this momentous occasion and her birthday is quickly approaching, but we must pass through the busy month of October before I start to make plans for Rebekah's 1st birthday party.

Long Awaited Day

Last week we gave Rebekah her first food. It seems to have been a little early, because she spit most of it out and wanted to grab everything around her and chew on it. She's had cereal on a few subsequent occassions with a little better luck, but we're taking it slow.

I'm sure the problem is that I bought cereal for a good deal and I've been anxious to give her food, though I'm not sure why. One of these days I'll have the patience to wait for the great things in life instead of jumping the gun, but not sure when that will be.

On a fun note, I tried to french braid Rachel's hair a couple weeks ago. It could have been better, but it didn't turn out too bad after a little frustration. It didn't last once we got in the car. If anyone has an idea of how to prevent hair from getting messed up while riding in the car I'm open to suggestions.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day. The girls are going to spend a day or two with Nana and Papa, and I am anxiously awaiting time without the girls. The beginning of the school year has been more stressful than I anticipated and I am looking forward to spending time without them. Hopefully I'll be more grateful for them and in a better mood when they return. Don't labor too much!

Lots to do?

Do you find yourself with a laundry list of things that need to get done daily? Does it make you tired just thinking about these things? Well, it makes me tired.

So far today I have:

-pumped
-taken a shower

-changed Rachel's sheets (since she wet the bed)

-done a load of laundry

-changed 2 diapers

-changed the girls' clothes

-gotten breakfast for Rachel

-eaten breakfast while I fed Rebekah a bottle

-done a few dishes and started the dishwasher

-gotten the diaper bag ready to leave in a few minutes

-wiped the girls' noses a few times each

-blown my own nose (morning occurrence)

-rammed my back into a plastic crate

all this and I've even had the opportunity to use the bathroom! Can you believe it? This is a normal morning and probably isn't much for those of you who've been at this for years or have more children than I do, but I'm just not that good at it yet.

Little Girl vs. Sidewalk

The other day when Jeff took the girls for a walk he let Rachel walk/run at the end. While I was inside I started hearing some crying/screaming coming from outside, but it's rarely our children. Sure enough, it was Rachel crying. Apparently she stopped running to look at Jeff and when she started running again she tripped over her shoe. Darn those shoes. Maybe she'd do better without them.

Her face was swollen the next day, but she did okay with it. Most of the scab has come off and it is healing nicely. Right now all 4 of us are fighting colds that I hope are just colds and don't turn into something more.

Jeff has finished his first week of school and is geared up for this week. We're not quite back into a regular routine, but we're getting there. I decided not to post the picture of his first day on facebook, but it works nicely here. He took his picture himself on his Macbook at school since I wasn't awake to take it for him!

Libraries are Lifesavers

Well, after a rough start this morning (Rebekah woke up at 6:45 and spit up all over me, her, and the couch 5 minutes after Jeff left, and Rachel was awake when we finished our quick bath), the day has gone okay.

I found that toddler story time at the library was this morning at 10:30, so I decided to try it. Even though Rachel sat in my lap while I was holding Bekah the whole time. She didn't try to interact with anyone and there weren't enough crafts to go around, so we didn't make one. I don't know that I'd call it a success, but it was definitely a change of pace. I decided to splurge on a free sandwich at Arby's and we came home.

The girls both got naps and I got to talk to a couple of friends to make the day even better! Now all that's left is to go to Junior High at church for a couple hours. At times it feels like our life is completely crazy, but for the past couple of weeks, we haven't had lots of activities on our calendar. Fear not my friends, the activities and busyness will soon return! Look for more interesting posts on the lives of the loquacious Lehmanns!

Let's get beefy?

Okay, so there are 2 things related to beef that I'd like to tell you about.

First of all, my mom came into town this weekend while my dad was at a meeting Friday and Saturday morning. She very graciously watched the girls while Jeff and I went out on a date. We went to eat at Saltgrass and it was very good! We were finishing a few "healthy items" on Jeff's bucket list for him to turn in to school tomorrow (Monday), so we had to go somewhere that he could ask that the bread not be served at our table and order his salad dressing on the side. He was also watching the starches he ate that day, so he didn't order a potato either. I however had a very yummy sirloin with a salad and baked potato. In order to stay with the healthy theme, I decided to cut my steak and potato in half before I started so I wouldn't over eat and so that we would have leftovers. After dinner we went shopping and started checking things off of our Christmas list.

Second of all, we again went shopping on Saturday and I have decided that I don't like Kid to Kid (sorry for those of you that do). This particular location has been a major pain, in part because I've had 2 kids to watch when I go in there, and in part because of their crazy ideas!

My first 2 attempts to shop at this location were shot down because they were having a sale. The problem was that they were only going to be open from 4-7pm. Who in their right mind only opens for 3 hours for a sale? Not to mention all the lights were on and the employees were standing around, but the door was locked. There was a small piece of paper typed out the event of the day. Unfortunately, the same thing happened for the same reason the second time.

This time, we had a coupon to use and so we decided to buy Rachel clothes for winter. I had found a pair of khakis and some jeans but in order to use my coupon, I would have to spend $25. Well, we spent 45 minutes in the store and when I go to check out, they tell me my coupon won't work. I had no intention on buying half of the items I picked out if I wasn't getting a discount on it, so I walked out. I'm sure I should have said fine and gone through what I had chosen and bought the items that were a good deal and that I just couldn't live without, but I was so frustrated that it was my 2nd trip in the store that day and had spent 45 minutes picking out clothes and both of my girls were cranky, that I just left.

One of these days I'll grow up and figure out how to behave. I could have gone back in later and bought what I really felt was necessary, but my pride got in the way. I had behaved so horribly. Hopefully we'll still find good deals on clothes for Rachel this winter and she won't have to freeze in the bitter cold that is Texas!

Happy back to school all you teachers!

Ladies at Prayer

I think this is the name of a ministry at our church where ladies get together and pray over any prayer needs of the church. Well, in my most humble opinion, I think they need to create a Toddlers at Prayer group. Yes, I mean for 2-4 year olds to pray together. Of course I don't really think this will happen, but my almost 2 year old does it.

When we sit down at the dinner table, she grabs our hand and says "Pray," and she'll sit there until one of us takes her hand and prays. Most of the time she doesn't hold our hand the whole time and kind of stares at us, not that we always look at her, so we don't really know what she understands.

Well, that leads me to what happened this evening. After dinner I was sitting by the computer holding Rebekah and Rachel decided she wanted Bekah to pull her hair, because she thinks it's funny. Then she tried to grab her hand and hold it, and when Bekah let her hold it, she said pray, bowed her head, and started talking as if she was praying! It was very hard not to laugh at her and yell at Jeff to come see (he was outside working on the car). I had to go tell Jeff what had happened. I think it's hilarious that she did it and at the same time I am in awe of how much our actions are being played out in our 2 year old. I just really hope the Lord draws her to Himself at an early age and that she will always have the desire to serve and honor Him. What an amazing thing to be the stewards of!

(By the way, and not that it matters, but I say she's 2 because it's not easy to think and say that she's 22 months.)

Oh, and a little update on Rebekah! She can sit up! We think she's been sitting up for a week or two, but we didn't let go of her and she would always lean back b/c we were touching her back. She's getting pretty good at it, but I think she knows we'll hold her if she falls, so she doesn't make much of an effort.

Little girls

Our baby girl has a high fever for the first time!  It is very sad.  Since Wednesday Rachel has had a fever over 100.  I have been speaking with the nurse at our doctor's office, knowing that without any other symptoms, it was most likely a virus.  They did say that they wanted to see her on Friday if the fever stayed up.  Since her fever was lower on Friday morning than it was most of the day Thursday, I decided to hold off on the doctor visit.  Our doctor sees patients on Saturday morning if need be, so we bit the bullet and took her this morning.  They did a flu test (negative thankfully) and Rachel did not like that one bit!  We think she doesn't like the doctor's office any more (although, she was very tired while we were there).  

She is doing better and hasn't had much of a fever today and no Tylenol for her today!  We are happy with her progress, but we will be staying home from church in the morning. Rebekah is also having a slightly elevated temperature, but for a very different reason.  The video below was filmed while Rachel was sick on Friday.  She was very whiny on Thursday, but mostly back to normal on Friday.

On a lighter note, Rebekah has a tooth!!!  We are most excited and thrilled at the prospect of her getting older.  It's been very different having Rebekah around.  Part of me compares her to when Rachel achieved milestones, and the other part of me feels like she's too young to be ready for some of these events, but I guess that just means time is flying by.  

Life is passing me by

It's been a while since we've posted anything about our life. We do have an excuse, but I've been trying to get this post up for at least the last 2 weeks, but other things have come up, and well...we've just been busy. Jeff said the other day that once school gets out he's usually bored and says that maybe he should have gotten a summer job, but by July we're so busy it would be impossible for that summer job to have worked out.

First we went on vacation from June 29th-July 3rd. We went to Houston to visit some of Jeff's family and had a marvelous time. We stopped in north Houston to have lunch and spend the afternoon with Jeff's aunt and uncle. Since they have a swimming pool, we had some fun outside. For dinner we grilled out with some of Jeff's cousins before crashing at Peg's house. On Tuesday we went to the Downtown Houston Aquarium where Rachel had a blast! We got lots of pictures and she even touched the sting rays. That evening we had dinner with Jeff's cousins and then Jeff went to play soccer with his cousin Michael. Wednesday we helped Peg pack up more of her house and took a load over to her new house. It's a very nice house in a developing neighborhood. We went to Burnet to visit Teri's aunt, uncle, and cousin, so we got to play around at Camp Longhorn. While there we went swimming in the lazy river, petted the goat and other animals in the petting zoo, and jumped on the trampolines. We also ate lots of yummy food. We would have liked to stay for fireworks on the 4th, but our schedule didn't allow us to stay.

After 2 days of unpacking, doing laundry, and repacking, we headed out on another adventure, only this time the girls went one way and we went another. The girls stayed with Jeff's parents and Teri's parents gave them some relief starting on Saturday. We think they had lots of fun. They went swimming a few times, attended a family reunion, and played with their grandparents (of course).


Jeff and I went to Camp Barnabas, a Christian camp for disabled and mentally handicapped people (mostly kids), with the youth group from our church. We had good times and frustrating times, but overall it was a lot of fun. It was technically a mission trip since we were volunteering our time to the camp and witnessing to these young adults who may or may not have been Christians. We would love to go back again, but we're not sure if it will be next year or not.

Since then we've had Junior High activities, and several other things that make you busy and then you forget to finish writing blog posts. Well, I hope will be the first of many posts in August (since there aren't any in July). Happy summering!

Lo and Behold

Well, the other morning I happened to get a look into Rachel's mouth and what did I see? A new tooth had poked it's way through her gums and she has a new tooth. She never lets you put your finger in her mouth to check for items she shouldn't have in her mouth or even just the random check for a new tooth. Since I knew she had a tooth, I stuck my finger in her mouth just to see if it was real. Lo and behold, it was! Today as I was writing in her baby book, and since she cuts teeth pretty close together, I decided to check one more time while I had the book out. She still didn't like me messing around in her mouth, but lo and behold, ANOTHER TOOTH! Two teeth in one week! I guess she's halfway through cutting her 2 year molars! Maybe we'll have a mild terrible twos since she won't be cutting teeth?!

We have even more news. On TuesdayJeff's brother called saying they were going to the birthing center. After several agonizing hours, and some sleep, we got the news that lo and behold we have a baby nephew!! We are ecstatic to have a nephew and to finally be Uncle Jeff and Aunt Teri. I'm sure our girls also love that they now have a cousin. We have a friend who had 4 or 5 children before those kids had a cousin. Well, he's 8 lbs and looks a lot like Jeff's brother Chad. You can see their blog to the right under Strangers in a Strange Land.

Only 2 days left of 5 Day clubs and then we're off to galavant the countryside (Megan's words!). We hope everyone is staying cool and able to enjoy the summer (or winter if your in New Zealand :) ).

Long Week

Well, Day 1 of 5 Day Clubs is over. It went really well. I guess the good thing is that it's not at my house. We had 22 kids come today. I'm very excited to see what the Lord does through these children this week.

As the title mentioned, it's going to be a long week. Jeff has soccer camp every morning and as soon as he gets home Rebekah and I go to 5 Day Clubs, and we have something every night of the week except for tonight. I don't know if I can function! Well, we sort of signed up for this, so we should be prepared. Another thing complicating the week is that Rachel cut another tooth, so she's not exactly the happiest camper on the planet. After this week we'll be going on vacation for 5 days and then on to Camp Baranabas for a week of serving others with the youth group from our church. Some day our life will slow down, but I'm not really sure when that will be.

If you're thinking of us there are a few things you could pray about if you so choose:

1. Time to do our housework, laundry, packing, unpacking, and repacking

2. Wisdom when our patience runs low (with wisdom comes patience-it's in Proverbs somewhere)

3. Safe travel (see Pulling a "Lehmann" post if you're curious)

4. Pray that Rebekah will be comfortable with continuing breastfeeding after our trip

5. Pray for the youth on our trip that they will make it through the week and understand the expanse of God's love and compassion

6. That the girls' routines aren't too upset by all the schedule and scenery changes

7. Good visits with family and friends on our vacation

If I think of others, I'll post them somewhere if you'd like me to.

Oh, and Happy Father's Day to the father in my house, as well as our Dads!